MLB's biggest personalities weigh in on Pirates' organizational failure

A season of hope has quickly turned into a season of embarrassment for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Holding the third-worst record in all of MLB, the Pirates find themselves as a bottom-feeder for the seventh year in a row, and non-Pirates fans are starting to notice.

It is no secret that the Pirates are among the bottom five in payroll, haven't signed a multi-year free agent deal in nine years, and seemingly aren't trying to win baseball games whatsoever. Pirates fans have been disgusted with this ownership for years, and now MLB's biggest personalities are voicing their opinions on how the Pirates are being run.

Baseball's biggest names are disgusted with Pirates' ownership

With Derek Shelton's firing taking place last week, much has been made about the Pirates as an organization and how this firing doesn't change the root of the problem.

Chris Rose, a longtime sports media personality, took to social media after Shelton's dismissal to talk about the Pirates issues beyond the manager.

"Lineup changes, not great with the bullpen, I understand that. He had one of the worst winning percentages for a guy that managed as many games as he did in big league history," said Rose. "But this organization stinks."

Rose went on to give a stat that haunts Pirates fans. Since 1992, the Pirates have had just four seasons of 80-plus wins. Rose admits the organization has, in some ways, tried to make the right moves, but even those few haven't worked out.

"They extended Ke'Bryan Hayes, awesome glove at third base, can't give us an extra-base hit. They extended Bryan Reynolds, nine figures, he is a negative WAR player and like a .630 OPS. Their number one pick from a few years ago, Henry Davis, sub-.500 OPS. They are going to waste Paul Skenes' time in Pittsburgh," said Rose.

Jeff Passan, who predicted $200 million and $400 million contracts for Oneil Cruz and Paul Skenes just a few weeks ago, has also weighed in on the Pirates organization.

"The Pirates have an incredible pitching staff, and they didn't do sh-- this offseason," said Passan on Pardon My Take. "I look at [the Pirates] and I'm like, try. Just once, please go out and try to field a winning team."

Passan is usually a fairly buttoned-up guy in the media, and his lashing out at the Pirates organization tells you all you need to know about how disgusted everyone has become with the state of the team.

Very recently, Bob Costas, a Hall of Fame MLB broadcaster, went on the Dan Patrick Show and discussed how bad the Pirates have been for so long. Costas argues that many of the teams in the NL Central have comparable payrolls to the Pirates, making their poor performance even worse.

"What's the Pirates' excuse?" asked Costas. "They play a huge percentage of their games within the NL Central, with other teams that aren't running away from them payroll-wise. You've got a second and third wildcard, you don't have an excuse to be this bad, this consistently, for this long."

Shelton's firing was a good thing because he truly wasn't good, and he overstayed his welcome. But it was even more important in the grander scope of the Pirates. The media is talking about them more than ever and Bob Nutting is officially under the microscope with baseball fans at-large.